album sales
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Kelly Clarkson earns her fourth No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated July 8) as her latest studio effort, Chemistry, debuts atop the list. The set sold 43,000 copes in the U.S. in the week ending June 29, according to Luminate. Clarkson previously led the tally with Piece by Piece (2015), All I Ever Wanted (2009) and Thankful (2003). All told, Chemistry is her 10th top 10-charting title on Top Album Sales.
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Also in the top 10 of the new Top Album Sales chart, Young Thug nabs his sixth top 10 set as Business Is Business bows at No. 6.
Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now Luminate. Pure album sales were the sole measurement utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent album units. The new July 8, 2023-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on July 5, one day later than usual, owed to the Independence Day holiday in the U.S. on July 4. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
Of Chemistry’s 43,000 copies sold in its first week, physical sales comprise 25,500 (18,000 on CD and 7,500 on vinyl) and digital album sales comprise 17,500. The set also enters at No. 1 on the Vinyl Albums chart (her first leader there), and with 7,500 sold, Chemistry lands Clarkson her best week ever on vinyl.
Chemistry’s sales were bolstered by its availability across multiple vinyl variants, including exclusive color editions for Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Clarkson’s webstore, Spotify, Target, Urban Outfitters and Walmart. (Target’s edition also had an alternative cover.) Clarkson’s CD sales were enhanced by multiple editions, including a signed version sold through her webstore, an Amazon-exclusive that contained a poster and a Target-exclusive variant with an alternative cover.
ATEEZ’s The World EP.2: Outlaw falls to No. 2 in its second week, with 32,000 sold (down 68%) after debuting atop the list a week ago. Stray Kids’ former No. 1 5-STAR is a non-mover at No. 3 with 19,000 (down 28%) and ENHYPEN’s Dark Blood is also stationary at No. 4 with 11,000 (down 10%). Taylor Swift’s chart-topping Midnights is steady at No. 5 with nearly 11,000 sold (down 4%).
Young Thug’s Business Is Business is the second and final debut in the top 10, as it starts at No. 6 with 8,500 sold, with 97% of that figure from digital album sales. A small number of sales were generated by a CD edition of the album that was released late in the tracking week to a limited number of independent record stores. Business is the sixth top 10-charting set for the rapper.
Swift has two more albums in the top 10, as her former No. 1s Folklore (10-7 with 8,000; up 4%) and Lover (16-8 with 7,000; up 16%) both climb. Two more chart-topping sets round out the top 10, as SEVENTEEN’s SEVENTEEN 10th Mini Album: FML is a non-mover at No. 9 (nearly 7,000; down 19%) and TWICE’s Ready to Be rises 13-10 (6,000; down 9%).
In the week ending June 29, there were 1.708 million albums sold in the U.S. (down 13.6% compared to the previous week). Of that sum, physical albums (CDs, vinyl LPs, cassettes, etc.) comprised 1.363 million (down 17%) and digital albums comprised 346,000 (up 3.1%).
There were 620,000 CD albums sold in the week ending June 29 (down 14.4% week-over-week) and 735,000 vinyl albums sold (down 19.1%). Year-to-date CD album sales stand at 17.537 million (up 3.9% compared to the same time frame a year ago) and year-to-date vinyl album sales total 23.606 million (up 21.7%).
Overall year-to-date album sales total 50.641 million (up 7.9% compared to the same year-to-date time frame a year ago). Year-to-date physical album sales stand at 41.407 million (up 13.3%) and digital album sales total 9.234 million (down 11.2%).
ATEEZ lands its first No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated July 1) as the Korean pop group’s latest release, The World EP.2: Outlaw, opens atop the tally. The six-song set launches with 101,000 copies sold — the act’s best sales week yet. In total, it’s the fourth top 10-charting set for the eight-member ensemble.
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Also in the top 10 of the new Top Album Sales chart, Queens of the Stone Age’s In Times New Roman… debuts at No. 2, while three older albums all surge into the top 10 following their premiere on vinyl: J. Cole’s Born Sinner, Gracie Abrams’ Good Riddance and Lil Peep’s Crybaby.
Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now Luminate. Pure album sales were the sole measurement utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent album units. The new July 1, 2023-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on June 27. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
Of The World EP.2: Outlaw’s 101,000 copies sold in its first week, physical sales comprise a little over 98,000 (all on CD) and digital album sales comprise the remaining sales.
Like many K-pop releases, the CD edition of The World EP.2: Outlaw was issued in collectible CD packages (21 total, including exclusive editions for Barnes & Noble, Target and Walmart, as well as some signed editions), each containing a standard set of branded merchandise items and randomized branded elements (action cards, partner cards, photo cards). Of the album’s sales, 97.5% were on the CD format, with the remainder generated by digital download album purchases. The set was not released on any other retail format (cassette, vinyl, etc.).
The World EP.2: Outlaw is the 10th album to sell at least 100,000 copies in a single week in 2023. Of those 10, seven of them are K-pop titles, with sales largely driven by collectible CD variants.
Queens of the Stone Age start at No. 2 on Top Album Sales with its latest set, In Times New Roman…, bowing with 36,000 copies sold. It’s the fifth top 10-charting effort for the group. Vinyl sales drove the majority of the album’s starting sum, with nearly 21,000 sold on the format (the band’s best week ever on vinyl, bolstered by its availability across seven variants). In Times New Roman… also debuts at No. 1 on the Vinyl Albums chart — its third leader on that tally.
Stray Kids’ former leader 5-STAR: The 3rd Album falls 2-3 on Top Album Sales with 27,000 (down 41%), ENHYPEN’s Dark Blood rises 5-4 with 13,000 (down 34%) and Taylor Swift’s Midnights climbs 7-5 with 11,000 (down 34%).
J. Cole’s chart-topping Born Sinner, released in 2013, returns to the chart for the first time since 2014, as its vinyl release prompts its re-entry at No. 6 with 11,000 sold (up 39,761%) — nearly all from vinyl sales. For its 10th anniversary, the album was pressed on three vinyl variants, including a Target-exclusive edition. On Vinyl Albums, the set debuts at No. 2.
Gracie Abrams’ Good Riddance, which was released in February, jumps back onto Top Album Sales at No. 7 — a new peak — with 10,000 sold (up 3,322%, its best sales week yet; almost entirely from vinyl sales). It was available across five vinyl variants and starts at No. 3 on the Vinyl Albums chart.
Lil Peep’s Crybaby, released in 2016, hits Top Album Sales for the first time as its vinyl release prompts its debut at No. 8 with 8,000 sold (up 631%), with 7,000 of that sum on vinyl. It’s the third top 10-charting set for the late Lil Peep, who died in 2017, and all of his chart entries have been posthumous. Crybaby bows at No. 5 on the Vinyl Albums chart.
Rounding out the top 10 of the new Top Album Sales chart is SEVENTEEN’s SEVENTEEN 10th Mini Album: FML (climbing 11-9 with 8,000; down 4%) and Swift’s Folklore (13-10 with nearly 8,000; up 6%).
The Contenders is a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top of the Billboard charts, and the strategies behind their efforts. This week (for the upcoming charts dated July 1), a star rapper looks to continue his hot streak, while hard rock veterans and K-poppers also put the top spot in their sights.
Gunna, A Gift and a Curse (YSL/300): Though Gunna has been under attack on social media since last December for his supposed “snitching” in accepting an Alford plea — a formal admission of guilt while also maintaining innocence — for his part in the YSL RICO trial, it appears that he remains a prolific performer on streaming. (He denied any cooperation with the prosecution.) His new album A Gift and a Curse has littered the Spotify and Apple Music real-time charts since its release last Friday (June 16), with the shout-along “fukumean” already seeming like a breakout hit from the set.
The rapper born Sergio Giavanni Kitchens has been a regular visitor to the top spot of the Billboard 200 since his late-’10s rise to stardom. And he’s already been there three times this decade – with his own Wunna (2020) and DS4Ever (2022) albums, and as a co-lead on the YSL showcase compilation Slime Language 2 (2021). DS4Ever, Gunna’s most recent set, was also his most popular, moving 150,000 first-week units and topping even The Weeknd’s new Dawn FM to claim the top spot.
To unseat Morgan Wallen – who returns to No. 1 for a 13th frame with his One Thing at a Time blockbuster this chart week – he’ll need to do it almost entirely with streaming (with help from digital sales), as the album is not yet for sale in any physical format. Wallen posted 115,000 units in its most recent week, so if Gunna can approach his DS4ever debut performance with his new set, he should have a pretty good shot of becoming the latest act to interrupt the country star’s months-long reign.
Ateez, The World Ep.2: Outlaw (KQ/RCA/Legacy): It’s going to be a classic case of sales vs. streams in next week’s competition for top debut on the Billboard 200. Eight-piece Korean boy band Ateez has yet to establish a big stateside presence on streaming services, but like many popular K-pop acts, the act sells physical copies by the truckload – which has already helped their Spin Off: From the Witness set hit No. 7 earlier this year, and their The World Ep.1: Movement EP get all the way to No. 3 on the Billboard 200 last August.
The sequel to that latter EP, The World Ep. 2: Outlaw is also expected to make a pretty big chart splash next week, again thanks to robust physical sales. To maximize that opportunity, the octet has released 21 different collectible CD editions of Outlaw, including some signed variants, all containing branded merchandise and randomized items (action cards, partner cards, photo cards) — as well as a Target-exclusive edition.
Queens of the Stone Age, In Times New Roman… (Matador): Queens of the Stone Age albums are becoming increasingly infrequent – it’s been six years since the band’s Villains – but the veteran hard rock band has historically been a strong performer on the Billboard 200, and it even topped the chart two albums ago with 2013’s …Like Clockwork. This month’s In Times New Roman… will be helped by a series of different-colored vinyl variants, though thus far the album lacks a hit single to match Villains’ top 10-charting Rock Airplay hit “The Way You Used to Do.”
In the Mix
J. Cole, Born Sinner (ByStorm/Columbia/Dreamville/Roc Nation): As fans eagerly await a new album from Cole — and as he sticks around the top five on the BillboardHot 100 with his appearance on Lil Durk’s smash “All My Life” — fans also have new goodies to tide them over with the vinyl reissue of his 2013 chart-topper Born Sinner. The LP is available in a trio of color variants, including a translucent red exclusive to Target.
Asake, Work of Art (YNBL/Empire): Asake’s debut album Mr. Money With the Vibe was one of the most-acclaimed and best-received Afrobeats albums of 2022, reaching the top half of the Billboard 200. The Nigerian singer/songwriter looks to do even better than that set’s No. 66 bow with this month’s Work of Art, which has already scored a pair of top 10 hits on the Billboard U.S. Afrobeats Songs chart with advance tracks “Amapiano” (with Olamide) and “2:30.”
Niall Horan earns his third straight No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated June 24) – the entirety of his solo studio releases – as The Show debuts atop the tally. The set bows with just over 68,000 copies sold in the United States in the week ending June 15, according to Luminate.
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Horan’s first two albums, Heartbreak Weather (in 2020) and Flicker (in 2018) both debuted at No. 1.
The Show was released on June 9 via Neon Haze/Capitol Records.
Also in the top 10 of the new Top Album Sales chart, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Noah Kahan, P1Harmony, Janelle Monae and Extreme all make waves with their latest releases.
Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now Luminate. Pure album sales were the sole measurement utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent album units. The new June 24, 2023-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on June 21, one day later than usual, owed to the Juneteenth holiday in the United States on June 19. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
Of The Show’s 68,000 copies sold in its first week, physical sales comprise 62,000 (33,700 on vinyl; 22,900 on CD and 500 on cassette) and digital album sales comprise 6,000. That nearly-34,000 sum on vinyl represents Horan’s biggest week on wax, and the largest sales week for any vinyl album released by Capitol Records in the modern era (since Luminate began tracking data in 1991). Unsurprisingly, The Show debuts at No. 1 on Billboard’s Vinyl Albums chart – Horan’s first No. 1 on the list.
The Show’s sturdy sales start was bolstered by an array of available physical editions: eight deluxe boxed sets containing a CD and branded merch, a signed CD sold through Horan’s webstore, a Target-exclusive CD with an alternative cover and a poster packaged inside, a zine CD package sold through his webstore, six vinyl variants (including color variants for Target, Spotify, Urban Outfitters and his webstore) and a cassette.
Notably, Horan equals the No. 1 count of his One Direction bandmate Harry Styles, who also saw his first three solo studio efforts all debut at No. 1 on Top Album Sales (his self-titled release in 2017, Fine Line in 2019 and Harry’s House in 2022). One further member of One Direction has topped the tally: Zayn, with his debut set Mind of Mine in 2016. (One Direction itself notched four No. 1s on Top Album Sales.)
Stray Kids’ 5-STAR falls to No. 2 in its second week on Top Album Sales, with 46,000 copies sold (down 81%).
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit’s latest release, Weathervanes, bows at No. 3 on Top Album Sales with 28,000 sold. It’s the sixth top 10-charting title for Isbell on the tally.
Noah Kahan’s Stick Season re-enters Top Album Sales at No. 3 following its deluxe reissue with seven bonus tracks, and its first pressing on vinyl, on June 9. The set sold 23,000 copies in the week ending June 15 – up 3,080%. The album originally debuted and peaked at No. 57 on the list dated Oct. 29, 2022. Vinyl comprises most of Stick Season’s sales for the week – 20,500. It bows at No. 2 on the Vinyl Albums chart. It had a relatively slim vinyl release – just three vinyl variants were issued for the set.
Korean pop group P1Harmony makes its debut on Top Album Sales with Harmony: All In, 6th Mini Album, bowing at No. 5 with 20,500 sold. Effectively all of that figure is CD album sales, thanks to the six-track set’s availability across 21 different collectible versions of the album, including some that were signed by the act. All of the iterations contain a standard set of branded merchandise items, along with randomized merch (photo cards and post cards).
ENHYPEN’s Dark Blood falls 2-6 on Top Album Sales in its second week on the list, selling 19,000 (down 78%).
Janelle Monae returns to the top 10 of Top Album Sales for the first time in over five years, as her new studio release The Age of Pleasure premieres at No. 7. The album sold 19,000 copies. She last debuted on the chart in May of 2018 with Dirty Computer, which bowed and peaked at No. 3. In total, Pleasure is her third top 10-charting set on Top Album Sales.
Taylor Swift’s chart-topping Midnights dips 6-8 on Top Album Sales with 17,000 sold (down 29%) while Foo Fighters’ But Here We Are falls 4-9 in its second week with 13,000 (down 77%).
Closing out the top 10 on Top Album Sales is a band that’s been absent from the top 10 for over 30 years – Extreme. The rock group’s new album Six bows at No. 10 with 12,500 copies sold. The set marks the band’s first studio album since 2008. The act was last in the top 10 with III Sides to Every Story, which debuted and peaked at No. 10 on the Oct. 10, 1992-dated chart.
In the week ending June 15, there were 1.924 million albums sold in the U.S. (down 8.5% compared to the previous week). Of that sum, physical albums (CDs, vinyl LPs, cassettes, etc.) comprised 1.587 million (down 8.4%) and digital albums comprised 337,000 (down 8.9%).
There were 711,000 CD albums sold in the week ending June 15 (down 25.9% week-over-week) and 865,000 vinyl albums sold (up 13.5%). Year-to-date CD album sales stand at 16.192 million (up 4.5% compared to the same time frame a year ago) and year-to-date vinyl album sales total 21.963 million (up 24.5%).
Overall year-to-date album sales total 46.956 million (up 9.2% compared to the same year-to-date time frame a year ago). Year-to-date physical album sales stand at 38.403 million (up 15.1%) and digital album sales total 8.553 million (down 11.1%).
Matchbox Twenty returns with its first studio album in a decade, as Where the Light Goes debuts at No. 2 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated June 10). The set marks the group’s sixth top 10-charting effort on the tally and its second-highest charting title ever, second only to the No. 1 North (the band’s last studio set) in 2013.
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Light bows with 12,000 copies sold in the United States in the week ending June 1, according to Luminate.
Also in the top 10 of the new Top Album Sales chart, Taylor Swift’s Midnights rushes 10-1, logging its 14th nonconsecutive week atop the list after new deluxe editions and a color vinyl variant of the album were released. Midnights sold 196,000 copies in the week ending June 1 (up 1,529%) – the largest sales week of 2023. With a 14th week at No. 1, Midnights surpasses the Frozen soundtrack (13 weeks at No. 1 in 2014) for the most weeks atop the chart since Adele’s 21 spent 24 nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 in 2011-12.
Plus, the soundtrack to the live-action The Little Mermaid film swims 41-6 on Top Album Sales (9,000; up 172%).
Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now Luminate. Pure album sales were the sole measurement utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent album units. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
SEVENTEEN’s former No. 1 SEVENTEEN 10th Mini Album: FML rises 5-3 (12,000; down 26%), the Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3: Awesome Mix Vol. 3 climbs 9-4 (10,000; down 15%), SZA’s SOS falls 3-5 (10,000; down 65%), LE SSERAFIM’s Unforgiven jumps 12-7 (9,000; down 3%), TOMORROW X TOGETHER’s The Name Chapter: Temptation bumps 15-8 (8,000; up 1%), Ed Sheeran’s chart-topping – (Subtract) ascends 13-9 (7,000; down 25%) and (G)I-DLE’s I Feel falls 7-10 (nearly 7,000; down 59%).
In the week ending June 1, there were 1.802 million albums sold in the U.S. (up 0.3% compared to the previous week). Of that sum, physical albums (CDs, vinyl LPs, cassettes, etc.) comprised 1.358 million (down 5.4%) and digital albums comprised 443,000 (up 23.5%).
There were 602,000 CD albums sold in the week ending June 1 (down 3.6% week-over-week) and 747,000 vinyl albums sold (down 6.5%). Year-to-date CD album sales stand at 14.520 million (up 4.1% compared to the same time frame a year ago) and year-to-date vinyl album sales total 20.335 million (up 24.7%).
Overall year-to-date album sales total 42.929 million (up 9.1% compared to the same year-to-date time frame a year ago). Year-to-date physical album sales stand at 35.084 million (up 15.1%) and digital album sales total 7.846 million (down 11.5%).
After topping the chart for five weeks in late 2022 — including a decade-best debut in November, with over 1.5 million equivalent album units moved — Taylor Swift‘s Midnights returns to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart this week (chart dated June 10), interrupting Morgan Wallen‘s 12 straight weeks atop the ranking with One Thing at a Time.
While the album didn’t have far to climb — it was No. 3 on the June 3 chart, and has spent all of 2023 in the top 10 — Midnights‘ return to No. 1 comes off a 389% spike in equivalent album units in the United States this week, up to 282,000. That’s thanks to a variety of new physical and digital re-issues of the album, released May 26. Those included the new “love potion” purple marble variant of Midnights that was available in independent stores (and was also briefly for preorder sale on her web store earlier in the week), as well as two new deluxe editions.
There’s also the Til Dawn edition of Midnights that includes three bonus tracks: another version of the original album’s Lana Del Rey-featuring “Snow on the Beach” (this time with more Del Rey), a remix of “Karma” featuring buzzy rapper Ice Spice and “Hits Different,” previously available only on the Target-exclusive physical edition of Midnights.
And there’s also Midnights (The Late Night Edition) — which was very briefly for sale as a digital download on Swift’s web store, and then in CD form at her three live shows at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium on May 26-28 — which includes those new takes on “Snow” and “Karma,” and an original bonus cut, “You’re Losing Me,” which is not yet available for streaming.
This is all in addition to the previously existing 3am Edition of Midnights, originally released just hours after the set’s standard edition.
All those variants combined to give Midnights its biggest week of the year, as well as — in terms of pure sales — the biggest single-week number for any album since Midnights debuted in November. Of the week’s 282,000 equivalent album units, nearly 70% came from album sales (196,000) — with a decent chunk also coming in streaming equivalent albums (SEA) and a much smaller sliver also in track equivalent albums (TEA).
Of those 196,000 total unit sales, 62% were digital with 122,000 units, while the venue sales during those three MetLife dates also contributed about 22% for 43,000 units and internet/mail order purchases made up almost 11% for 21,000 units.
Breaking it down by format, digital still ruled the day for Midnights the past week, with 122,000 units sold — followed by CD (45,600) and vinyl (27,300), with cassette sales (100) making up only a small fraction of the pie.
Of the four editions of Midnights available for sale, the most purchased version was the Late Night Edition that was for sale at the MetLife shows and featured the previously unreleased “You’re Losing Me.” That version accounted for almost 75% of all sales with 146,300 units. The album’s standard edition sold 30,600 units, making up almost 16%; and the Til Dawn Edition sold 18,500 units for over 9% of all sales.
When you look at total sales of all four editions of the album since its Oct. 21 release, however, the standard edition is still dominant. That version has sold over 2 million units, while the 3am Edition and Late Night Edition follow with 162,800 and 146,300 units, respectively.
Breaking down Midnights’ total overall sales since release, vinyl leads with 1,167,300 units, followed by CDs with 786,900 units and digital sales with 391,300 units.
* Midnights (standard edition) = (13-tracks, physical + digital) – inclusive of: the newly released the “Love Potion” color vinyl variant; plus the previously released iTunes-exclusive version with a bonus spoken word track, four standard CD editions (each with a different cover); four vinyl LP editions (each with a different cover and colored vinyl) and a cassette tape; a Target-exclusive “Lavender” edition of the album on CD and colored-vinyl LP, with the CD including three bonus tracks; signed copies of the four standard CD albums and the four standard vinyl LPs; and a deluxe boxed set with a CD edition of the standard album and a Swift-branded T-shirt, exclusively for Capital One cardholders; four digital alternative cover variants, each with a “behind the song” spoken word bonus track from Swift.
Midnights (The 3am Edition) = (20 tracks: 13 standard tracks + 7 bonus tracks; digital sales only, not available as a physical album)
Midnights (The Til Dawn Edition) = (23 tracks: 13 standard tracks + 7 ‘3am Edition’ tracks + 3 new bonus tracks; Digital Sales Only, not available as a physical album)
Midnights (The Late Night Edition) = (21 tracks: 13 standard tracks + 5 ‘3am Edition’ tracks + 3 bonus tracks; Physical + Digital)
Additional reporting by Keith Caulfield.
CD Baby has mostly exited the physical distribution business: “Going forward, we won’t have a warehouse, we won’t stock CDs, we’re no longer doing mail orders and that sort of thing,” says Scott Williams, president of CD Baby.
“We don’t take a decision like this lightly,” he adds. “But it’s just not as not as relevant for us and not as valuable to the artists that we serve. And so it’s time has come.”
That said, CD Baby isn’t exiting the physical business completely: Artists can still get CDs and vinyl manufactured through the company, CD Baby just won’t warehouse them. “We will still sell them, but those will be shipped to the artists that have purchased them,” Williams explains. “They can use Bandcamp; they can set up their own Shopify site. We have a lot of overlap today with Bandcamp — a lot of people that use us for digital distribution prefer to do their own physical distribution through Bandcamp, and they can still do that.”
CD Baby was founded roughly 25 years ago to sell compact discs for independent artists. (Downtown Music acquired CD Baby’s owner in 2019.) But CD sales started to decline in the 2000s, falling for 17 years straight until experiencing a small uptick in 2021. Sales of vinyl, the other primary physical music product, have traced the opposite path, recently celebrating their 17th consecutive year of growth.
In the first 10 weeks of 2023, CD sales ran slightly ahead of 2022 — 6.8 million in 2022 to 6.9 million, according to Luminate. CD prices are more affordable than vinyl, which often pushes past $30, executives say, and there are fewer production delays. Stars often sell them as a collectible item, and for touring acts, CDs are easier to take on the road to sell at shows.
Some distributors have seen the growth of the vinyl market as an opportunity to get into the physical distribution side of the business. Symphonic Distribution announced that it was adding physical distribution capabilities in partnership with AMPED in 2020. Pieter van Rijn, CEO of FUGA, told Billboard last year he was excited about the company’s recent entry into the physical distribution space. (Downtown also owns FUGA.)
But Williams says the CD has “fade[d] in relevance” for many of CD Baby’s acts. “Operating the fulfillment side of it isn’t going to be part of our core strategy going forward,” he continues. “I think we have better opportunities and things to focus on on the digital side.”
The Contenders is a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top of the Billboard charts, and the strategies behind their efforts. This week (for the upcoming charts dated June 4), a veteran rock group looks to score its first Billboard 200 No. 1 of the 2020s, with competition from a U.K. singer-songwriter, a couple hard rock outfits, and – of course – Morgan Wallen.
Dave Matthews Band, Walk Around the Moon (RCA): It might not be the first group that comes to mind when naming the biggest acts of the past 30 years, but few rock bands have ever enjoyed as consistent success as the Dave Matthews Band on the Billboard 200. The group has reached No. 1 with each of their last seven studio albums — a streak dating back to 1998’s Before These Crowded Streets – and hopes to make it eight with the release of last Friday’s (May 19) Walk Around the Moon, its first album of the 2020s.
However, the DMB’s chances to unseat Morgan Wallen (11 weeks and counting with his One Thing at a Time) will be impacted by a change in Billboard’s charts since the last time it released an album: the 2020 elimination of ticket bundles from Billboard 200 calculations, which previously provided a big boost to the exceedingly popular live outfit. (Recent rule changes have reintroduced “fan pack” bundles to Billboard chart calculations, but through merch rather than tickets, and with much stricter rules about eligibility.) Instead, the band will have to rely largely on physical sales — to which end, it has released multiple vinyl variants, including exclusive color variants for the band’s fan club, Barnes & Noble, independent record stores and Target.
Lewis Capaldi, Broken by Desire to Be Heavenly Sent (Vertigo/Universal/Capitol): Though Scottish singer-songwriter Lewis Capaldi reached the apex of the Billboard Hot 100 with his late-’10s breakthrough hit “Someone You Loved,” he topped out at No. 20 on the Billboard 200 with debut album Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent. After a few years of steady fanbase building, he may fare a little better with sophomore set Broken by Desire to Be Heavenly Sent — which features a more modest Hot 100 success with lead single “Forget Me” (No. 58) but has multiple vinyl LPs, four CD editions and even five cassette variants available for purchase.
Summer Walker, Clear 2: Soft Life (LVRN/Interscope): R&B star Summer Walker is on her way to being one of the most consistent LP artists of her generation — 2019 debut set Over It hit No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and its 2021 sequel, Still Over It, made it to No. 1, both also drawing considerable critical acclaim – but her EP success has been less resounding, with 2020’s Life on Earth tapping out at No. 8, with no real breakout hits. Her latest EP is Clear 2: Soft Life, a nine-track offering with a pair of big-name guests in J. Cole and Childish Gambino — but again, the set’s songs have not performed on the streaming charts the way Still Over It’s tracks did in their first week, suggesting fans still want to enjoy a longer Summer.
In the Mix
Ghost, Phantomine (Loma Vista) / Sleep Token, Take Me Back to Eden (Spinefarm): The streaming era has not been particularly generous to hard rock and heavy metal, but two bands from those genres that have found real success are Ghost and Sleep Token. Both will impact the charts next week with new releases: Ghost with a covers EP (featuring takes on Genesis, Iron Maiden and Tina Turner) and Sleep Token with their first LP since going viral with advance track “The Summoning” earlier this year. Those built-in streaming numbers will boost Eden, while Phantomine is aided by multiple vinyl LP variants and (somewhat ironically) a Spotify-exclusive cassette.
Beyoncé, Renaissance (Parkwood/Columbia): Whether it can spark the kind of extended catalog-wide gains that Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour has in its first couple months remains to be seen, but the launch of Beyoncé’s Renaissance Tour has already given its titular album a nice bump on the Billboard 200, lifting it 49-34 on this week’s chart. It may rise even higher next week with the Friday release of her new “America Has a Problem” remix, featuring rap superstar Kendrick Lamar, which is off to a good start on streaming and whose metrics will be rolled in with the original Renaissance album cut.
Jonas Brothers notch their fourth No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated May 27) as The Album enters atop the list with 35,500 copies sold in the U.S. in the week ending May 18, according to Luminate. The trio previously led the list with Happiness Begins (2019), Lines, Vines and Trying Times (2009) and A Little Bit Longer (2008).
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Also in the top 10 of the new Top Album Sales chart, Daft Punk’s former No. 1 Random Access Memories re-enters at No. 2 following its 10th anniversary deluxe reissue, Lauren Daigle’s self-titled album arrives at No. 3 and Joji’s Smithereens re-enters at No. 7 after its vinyl release.
Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now Luminate. Pure album sales were the sole measurement utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent album units. The new May 27, 2023-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on May 23. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
Of The Album’s 35,500 sold, physical sales comprise 29,000 (20,000 on CD, 9,000 on vinyl) and digital download sales comprise 6,500.
Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories charges back onto the list, as the former No. 1 re-enters at No. 2 after its 10th anniversary deluxe reissue on May 12. The set returns with a little over 32,000 copies sold (up 4,452%) after the album was reissued as a digital download, CD and vinyl LP with additional tracks.
Lauren Daigle’s new self-titled studio album bows at No. 3 on Top Album Sales, selling 20,000 copies in its first week. It’s her second top 10-charting effort, following her last release, 2018’s No. 2-peaking Look Up Child.
Ed Sheeran’s – (Subtract) falls 1-4 in its second week on the list, selling 20,000 copies (down 76%), the Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3: Awesome Mix Vol. 3 soundtrack falls 3-5 in its second frame (19,000; down 33%) and SEVENTEEN’s SEVENTEEN 10th Mini Album: FML dips 4-6 (16,000; down 41%).
Joji’s Smithereens surges back onto the chart at No. 7 with 13,000 copies sold (up 5,272%) after it was released on vinyl. The set debuted and peaked at No. 2 on the Nov. 19, 2022-dated list.
Taylor Swift’s former leader Midnights falls 6-8 (13,000; up 9%), Agust D’s chart-topping D-Day descends 5-9 (12,000; down 10%) and LE SSERAFIM’s Unforgiven drops 2-10 in its second week (nearly 12,000; down 69%).
In the week ending May 18, there were 1.778 million albums sold in the U.S. (down 12% compared to the previous week). Of that sum, physical albums (CDs, vinyl LPs, cassettes, etc.) comprised 1.448 million (down 12.8%) and digital albums comprised 331,000 (down 8.1%).
There were 620,000 CD albums sold in the week ending May 18 (down 15.9% week-over-week) and 817,000 vinyl albums sold (down 10.6%). Year-to-date CD album sales stand at 13.293 million (up 5.2% compared to the same time frame a year ago) and year-to-date vinyl album sales total 18.789 million (up 27.4%).
Overall year-to-date album sales total 39.333 million (up 10.3% compared to the same year-to-date time frame a year ago). Year-to-date physical album sales stand at 32.289 million (up 17.1%) and digital album sales total 7.043 million (down 13.1%).
The Contenders is a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top of the Billboard charts, and the strategies behind their efforts. This week (for the upcoming charts dated May 20), new albums from big names in the worlds of pop, hip-hop and country look to impact the Billboard 200’s top tier — along with a reissued dance chart-topper from a decade ago.
Jonas Brothers, The Album (Republic): The brothers band already had one of the century’s most successful comebacks after a decade-long hiatus in 2019, topping both the Billboard 200 and the Billboard Hot 100 with their Happiness Begins album and its single “Sucker.” Now the trio looks to do it again with The Album — a set heavily influenced by ‘70s and ‘80s top 40, as well as by their lives as family men.
The Album lacks a lead single as popular as “Sucker,” but the addictive “Waffle House” has started to scale the Hot 100, climbing to No. 82 this week. The group has also been extremely visible in its promotional lead-up to the album, performing two songs from it on Saturday Night Live in April, and kicking off its Five Albums, One Night Tour at Yankee Stadium, playing all of not only The Album, but also their other four albums before it.
YoungBoy Never Broke Again, Richest Opp (Never Broke Again/Motown): Surprise: Three weeks after his second full-length of 2023, April’s Don’t Try This at Home, YoungBoy is back with the new mixtape Richest Opp. At just 17 tracks, it’s about half the running time of Home, and with none of its big-name features. But it does come with some drama: Opp, announced just days before its release, was set to drop the same day as a (later delayed) new album from fellow star rapper Lil Durk, who YoungBoy has been taking shots at over social media, and who is one of the rappers YoungBoy calls out in the new set’s antagonistic “F–k the Industry Pt. 2.”
Bailey Zimmerman, Religiously. The Album (Warner Nashville/Elektra): As Morgan Wallen continues his still-uninterrupted reign atop the Billboard 200 — now at 10 weeks and counting for his One Thing at a Time — he faces a challenge from a breakout artist whose sound and ascent both mirror his own. Bailey Zimmerman has become one of the most consistently viral artists in country music — with radio success now to match, now that Hot 100 top 10 hit “Rock and a Hard Place” also topped the Country Airplay chart for six weeks — thanks to a delivery that similarly mixes power and vulnerability and lyrics that feel both personal and clever.
Whether the student can depose the master depends on if the rest of his debut album Religiously. The Album streams as well as its advance singles, “Rock” and fellow Hot 100 hits “Fall in Love” and “Fix’n to Break,” all of which are included among the set’s 16 tracks. Zimmerman will also get a boost from several sales variants, including a signed CD (available via his web store), as well as digital and cassette releases.
In the Mix
Daft Punk, Random Access Memories (Columbia): Though the duo of Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo officially went their separate ways two years ago, the robots are back this week with a 10th anniversary edition of their Billboard 200-topping, album of the year Grammy-winning 2013 album Random Access Memories. The set features a new disk of bonus cuts — including demos, alternate versions and even sequels to some of the original’s tracks – and can be purchased digitally, or as a triple-LP vinyl or double-disc CD set.
Lauren Daigle, Lauren Daigle (Centricity/Atlantic): It’s been five years since CCM breakthrough artist Lauren Daigle crashed the charts with her No. 3-peaking Look Up Child LP and its surprise No. 29 Hot 100 hit “You Say,” but the powerhouse artist often referred to as “the Christian Adele” is now back with her self-titled third album. Lauren Daigle has yet to spawn a crossover hit like “You Say,” but lead single “Thank God I Do” topped Billboard’s Hot Christian Songs listing, and is available for sale in three CD versions and a whopping six vinyl variants, as well as digitally.